This volume commemorates the life and oeuvre of Willi Paul Adams. He belonged to a generation of German historians of the United States who shaped the profession in multifaceted ways. Kathleen Conzen, University of Chicago, writes in her commemorative essay: "Willi Paul Adams produced an impressive and varied body of scholarship in his chosen field of American history. He made a lasting contribution to our understanding of the basic principles and processes under which Americans established their first democratic constitutions, stimulated significant inquiry into the political consequences of immigration for the United States, produced three major interpretive surveys of American history for non-American audiences, and gave German readers access through scholarly translations to major documents in the American political tradition."

Andreas Etges is a researcher at the department of History, John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin. Ursula Lehmkuhl is professor at the department of History, John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin.